In the aforementioned commonly assigned copending applications, there is described an apparatus for the production of sausage links of equal length and equal weight in a common sausage casing. The apparatus comprises a filling pump for displacing the sausage material into a filling tube over which the loose sausage casing is drawn. At the free end of the filling tube, a braking and rotating device is provided for retaining and twisting the loose sausage casing with respect to the filled portion or previously formed link whereby the continuous chain of links has each link separated from the next by a twisted portion of the casing.
In this apparatus, a conveyor is provided downstream of the twisting device to support a plurality of such links without distortion and to carry the links away from the filling tube at an adjustable speed. The supporting members of the conveyor are free from projections transverse to the direction of displacement and adapted to pass between the links as have been necessary heretofore as separators for the links in still earlier sausage-filling machines. The twisting device is intermittently operated in the cadence of the filling of the sausage casing by the pump.
The apparatus of the aforementioned applications has been found to be highly effective for the production of sausage links in a continuous chain, corresponding in length to the length of the loose sausage casing drawn over the filling tube, the links having identical but variable length and identical but variable weight corresponding to the sizes of the sausage links desired. The constricted portions of the casing material thus can be formed at adjustable distances from one another, the distances being constant for any given filling operation.
When, however, it is desired to package the sausage links individually or in groups of two, three, etc., of a number less than the total length of the sausage chain which can be produced, it is necessary to provide a separate cutting device as has been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,809,692 and 3,716,891.
In these systems, the constrictions or twisted-off portions of the completed sausage chain are sensed by special sensors or feelers and, in response to such sensors, a blade arrangement is actuated to cut between the sausage links displaced along the transport path.
Difficulties have been encountered in such arrangements in several respects. Firstly, the twisted-off portions between the sausage links can only be detected with difficulty and it is also a problem to cut through these twisted portions of the sausage casing in such manner that the ends of the sausage links are not damaged. Secondly, the cutting arrangements of the prior art are relatively complicated and require additional space downstream of the sausage-filling machine. Consequently, the sausage chain must be carried between the sausage-filling machine and the cutting device and the sausage casing is thereby engaged unnecessarily and possibly stressed with the drawback that further damage can occur. It should be appreciated, in this regard, that any mechanical operation performed upon the sausage casing the the filled links of sausage raises the possibility of damage since the sausage casing is generally quite thin and is highly sensitive.